Andy wrote:

On Jan 26, 8:32*pm, solar penguin
wrote:
Andy wrote:
Did you touch in the pink interchange validator at
Willesden Junction, when you changed trains, to show that you had
travelled that way?

I didn't even _see_ a pink validator there, never mind touch it. (Mind
you, it's a same-platform interchange, so I just stayed waiting
quietly at one end of the platform instead of wandering around
everywhere looking for validators.)


I'm not sure where the validators are at Willesden Junction, there is
certainly one on the route between the low level and high level
platforms, but I can't recall there is one actually on the high level
platforms themselves (for interchange between the West London Line and
North London Line services).

OK. That would probably explain why I didn't see it.


So start to end journey time was over two hours, which is over the
maximum time allowed for the overall trip from Gipsy Hill - Bruce
Grove (this counts as a journey crossing five zones and has a maximum
time of 110 mins).

How do you make it five zones? (Trying to understand the zonal system
always confuses me, but even if you include zone 1, the journey only
uses three zones (3, 2, and 1) and is only actually _crossing_ two of
them since it begins and ends in 3.


Zone 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, crossing five zones (note that the link shows
crossing upto 18 zones). Remember this is times, not fares and going
from zone 3 to zone 3 via zone 1 will generally take longer than zone
3 to zone 1.


Ok. Thanks. I'll try and remember that.


The old off-peak cheap day returns never had any hidden charges for
time limits. *And although there might've been some route restrictions
in theory, in practice they were never enforced.


And the old cheap day return would have been via the more expensive
zone 1 route and there probably wouldn't have been a cheaper option.

Oh well, that's a shame. But even if there wasn't an "Route: Not
London" option, the nice man in the ticket office would've said so
when I asked for one, so at least I'd know right at the start of the
journey what's involved, instead of trying to make sense of things
afterwards.


**sigh** The more I try to give Oyster a fair chance, the more ways it
finds to annoy me.